Place TNI under Ministry: Experts
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta
Analysts have told a House Commission deliberating a new bill on the Indonesian Military (TNI) to place the Indonesian Military (TNI) under the control of the Ministry of Defense in order to avoid overlapping in policy-making.
Currently, the TNI is directly subordinate to the president, with the TNI chief treated as being akin to a Cabinet minister, and therefore entitled to attend Cabinet meetings and meetings held by the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs.
According to the analysts, this arrangement had created overlapping in policy-making between TNI headquarters and the Ministry of Defense.
The drafting of the TNI bill provided an obvious example if this. The Ministry of Defense had previously prepared a TNI bill and submitted it to the state secretary. Apparently not satisfied, TNI headquarters went ahead and drafted its own bill.
"As long as the TNI is not made subordinate to the Ministry of Defense, there will always be overlapping in the policy-making process as regards military issues. This impinges on the TNI's professionalism," Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) told the House of Representatives' Commission I on Monday, the first day of hearings on the controversial new TNI bill.
Also attending the meeting were Indria Samego of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Kusnanto Anggoro and J. Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Yahya Muhaimin from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta.
The bill, which has aroused widespread opposition from the public, maintains the military's territorial role, which former strongman Soeharto used to keep a lid on political life.
It also allows serving military personnel to accept civilian posts without having to resign from the forces, a common phenomena during Soeharto's 32 years of authoritarian rule.
The House has pledged to endorse the bill by the end of September.
Kusnanto, meanwhile, said that the bill should clearly state that the TNI is a defense instrument that must submit to civilian authority.
"The TNI bill still has fundamental problems in its overall conception. It needs more discussion as it is hard to see how it will be capable of promoting professionalism among TNI personnel," he said.
Indria, meanwhile, proposed that the position of TNI chief be scrapped and that the president be given the power to appoint a Joint Chief of Staff in time of war only.
"The abolition of the post of TNI chief would encourage the Army, Navy, and Air Force to develop as professional forces," Indria said.
Meanwhile, Kristiadi criticized the bill for ignoring the welfare of soldiers as it contained not a single article about soldiers' pay and housing.